


we lifted this house

by gencat (songsinblue)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alpha OT4 - Freeform, Mental Health Issues, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Sburb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-21
Updated: 2015-08-21
Packaged: 2018-04-16 09:06:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4619622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/songsinblue/pseuds/gencat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the game, the Alpha kids fall apart, and back together again. Plotless fluff drabble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we lifted this house

**Author's Note:**

> jake pov. i'm sorry, i went through a phase where i didn't use capitalization in fic. i'm better now i swear.   
> title from Anna Sun by Walk the Moon.

when the game ends, it's hard on everyone. you wind up in a strange new world full of people that look at you funny for the way you talk and the things you're interested in, and for a while you just start talking less. you and Roxy had been excited to be around lots of new people, but she finds it hard to relate to them, she's on a whole different level, and she spends a few weeks slipping out to bars for company and only finding it in the bottom of her glass. she pulls herself back, recovers again, but you know it's hard. Jane has nightmares, and you can still see the shadows of guilt under her eyes for the things she blames herself for.

but you get used to the new world, full of strange and exciting adventures, and Roxy and Jane kiss the past out of each other's minds and start blossoming. the problem- as it often is- is Dirk.   
at the end of the game, he was about as vibrant as you'd ever seen, high on scheming victory and slaying demons. he'd lived his whole life for this, and of course he'd won. afterwards... it was like the drive and purpose he possessed had nothing to do anymore, and the new world leached it out of him. the three of you watched him sink, out of his depth in a world full of people and normalcy, and you didn't know what to do. six months after the game, one noisy friday night, you let yourself into Dirk's apartment to find him sitting under his desk with a sword, all the lights off, shaking. 

you sat down with him and gradually coaxed him into your arms, waited until the halls quieted and the panic attack subsided, and took him home with you. Roxy and Jane were already practically roommates, it only took a bit of house-hunting before the four of you all moved in together. 

in the early days, Dirk barely spoke, but when you were all together you could get him to flash little smiles every now and then, and that was something. Jane notes how nervous he is to leave the house, and performs some sort of miracle- she gets him on meds. by the end of the first month, all four of you are looking better. you work on fixing up the house, and you sleep in the same room. Roxy ensnares Dirk in a mission to upgrade all the tech, and they do, brilliantly. Dirk starts sleeping like a normal human being, and you can no longer count all of his ribs.   
Jane and Dirk often sleep in the same bed, and neither one of them have nightmares much anymore. 

it's like being a family again, except this time no one is trying to kill you, and the fate of the world no longer rests on your shoulders. Jane talks you all through your problems, points you towards solutions you hadn't even puzzled out yet. Roxy, as always, is the team mom, hugs everyone on sight and tells you all how great you are. Dirk looks out for everyone, even when you don't realize it- he slips Roxy mixtapes when she's down, carries Jane upstairs when she falls asleep on the couch during movie nights, and strifes with you when you're frustrated. he will always beat you in armed fights, he's as fast and deadly as ever with a blade. you usually beat him in hand to hand, you've just got more practice. he cheats and escapes your pins by tickling your side. you grab him again and kiss his bruised mouth, and he stops fighting back entirely.

you like that the most, when he just relaxes into your touch. during the game, his shoulders were always tense. Roxy always has her hands on everyone within reach, but you think she too has a soft spot for pressing her thumbs into Dirk's shoulderblades, the soft happy sounds he tries to keep quiet as she works the back of his neck.   
when you go out, Dirk follows close behind you, lets you lead and watches your back. he doesn't get shaky around other people anymore, but he still doesn't like crowds. that's fine with you. you mess around in the grocery store, sitting in the cart while he steers and tries to bury you in ramen and orange soda. you insist on 'real food', but let him keep a few boxes. you can't remember if he laughed during the game, but you love his laugh now, low and sweet. 

April fool's day is a beautiful disaster. Jane enlists Dirk in her plotting, and you and Roxy are so scared you have no choice but to team up and try to get them before they get to you. the afternoon begins with you and Roxy getting doused in glitter, except they've mixed up the bags and you wind up pink while Roxy is emerald. you hear the click of Jane's camera and Dirk whispering, 'oh my god, yes. run!' Dirk flashsteps past, just a breeze next to you, but Roxy has calculated his speed and manages to trip the waterfall at just the right moment. he stops dead, hair plastered to his face and sopping wet, just in time to turn around and catch you double over laughing while Roxy and Jane resort to throwing cupcakes at each other. Jane chases you all out of the kitchen and you have a fantastic watergun fight on the lawn until you collapse into a sticky, glittering, dripping mess of almost-adults. the shower sparkles for a month.

when summer comes, Roxy marches everyone out of the house. you go down to the park and swing on the swings. the wind whooshes through your hair and you remember what it was like to fly, on a planet you will never see again. you all get a little quiet after that, until Jane unpacks the picnic basket. the sandwiches are amazing, as usual. warm weather looks good on Dirk; his hair and skin and eyes all golden. you toss around a frisbee for a while, Jane sprawling on the blanket with a detective novel while Roxy gathers a following of squirrels with scraps of sandwich. afterwards, you and Roxy climb a tree and talk about where you want to travel someday, with the money the game left you in the bank. Dirk joins Jane on the blanket with his sketchpad. you wonder about the beach. you wonder if Dirk misses the ocean like you do. maybe not, here is a pretty good place to be too.

on the fourth of July, at dusk, you start a fire from scratch in the little fire pit on the lawn. Jane claps delightedly, and Roxy mixes a single red-white-and-blue cocktail for everyone. she even sticks umbrellas in them. you light sparklers and write each others' names in hearts and stars. Jane takes pictures, you all running through the twilight trailing burning love notes like fireflies. you toast marshmallows over the fire and hand them out, since Roxy keeps lighting hers on fire by mistake and Jane's too careful to get hers melty enough. Dirk watches curiously and you realize he's never toasted marshmallows before. you feed him one by hand and he says it's weird, but he smiles and licks the last of it off your fingers. when full dark comes Dirk sets off the fireworks he's been tinkering with all week, assembling from semi-legal pieces. they're better than any you've seen in the movies, full of changing colors and flowing shapes, exploding with thumps you can feel in your chest. he's taken off his shades, and the colors play across his face along with a little bit of pride and awe, and when it's over you can't wait any longer, you pull him down and kiss him senseless.  
sometimes it's so domestic you wonder whose lives you're really living. you have seen Jane possessed, and throwing it off, rising up like a tsunami from the calm seas. you have seen Roxy fight monsters barehanded, and summon substance from nothing at all. you were in the middle of it when Dirk died for all of you, watched him shred the souls of enemies at the cost of his own. you were gods, bending the elements to your wills.

these days you spin Jane around the kitchen floor, dancing to electro remixes of the songs your grandmother used to play. sometimes you catch Dirk and Roxy sitting on the couch, face to face, just holding each other's hands, or combing each other's hair. you think of how new human contact still is to them, the way they glow at each other's gentle touch. you love them all impossibly. on game nights Roxy always wins everything from racing games to first person shooters to rpgs, but you don't mind because here and there she teaches the rest of you a few tricks. Jane knows everyone's favorite desserts- strawberry shortcake, monster cookies, lemon crisps- and bribes you all shamelessly to do chores. Dirk is still prone to staying up all night working on projects, but you don't mind, it's lovely to see the passion on his face. 

he's also finally come to trust enough to develop the adorable habit of napping in the afternoons. before, he was always the last one to sleep and the first one up, said he hated sleeping in front of other people. the first time he settles on the couch next to you, puts his feet across your lap while you're playing on your DS, and dozes off, you think your heart will explode. you sit perfectly still for an hour and fifteen minutes and you're still a little disappointed when he wakes up and heads downstairs, even though your feet are falling asleep.

sometimes you find him asleep on the rug in his office, in a sea of blueprints. once you caught him sleeping in the window seat in the hall like a cat. you come into Roxy's room one winter day and find her tapping away on her tablet with dirk passed out in her lap. she beckons you over and hands you the tablet to take a picture. she captions it 'kawaii' and sets it as the background to every computer in the house. Dirk pretends to sulk and only sleeps with you and Jane for a while, but you don't sit still for too long and Jane always falls asleep too, and snores.

you always believed in magic; the game solidified that, made it real and tangible, but you weren't sure it would carry over, that there would be any magic left for this world.

there is.


End file.
